Introduction
NOTE: The data and findings below are drafts subject to change and
some pieces are still in the QA process.
RACE COUNTS provides a 3D view of racial equity:
OUTCOME: How
well people are doing. The higher the circle, the better the outcome.
DISPARITY: How racial groups compare to one another. The further
right the circle, the greater the differences by race.
IMPACT: The
total population. The bigger the circle, the larger the population.
Purple counties: Gains at Risk;
Orange counties: Prosperity for
the Few;
Yellow counties:
Struggling to Prosper;
Red counties:
Stuck and Unequal.
Race/Ethnicity Notes
1) “Other” race includes those who identify with a race outside
of the specifically named categories, such as Asian, White, etc.
2)
Race labels for bar charts: The “nh_” prefix signifies that a group is
non-Latinx (excludes Latinx).
3) The “twoormor” group represents
those who identify as Two or More Races.
Indicators
Democracy Index - UPDATED
- There seems to be a correlation between higher outcome and lower
disparity.
- The majority of larger population counties have below average racial
disparity, while the reverse is true for non-urban counties with smaller
populations.
- All of the counties in the San Joaquin Valley, except Merced, have
below average outcomes in the Democracy Index. Five of them are also
higher disparity.
- Six of the 10 counties with the highest racial disparities in
Democracy Index were in the Northern Sierra region.
- All Bay Area and Central Coast counties, except for Solano and
Monterey, have better than average outcomes.
Census Participation
Scatterplot
- In general, larger population counties have higher overall Census
participation rates than smaller population counties.
- Five out of the six Central Coast counties are in the Purple
Quadrant (Lower Disparity, Higher Outcome).
- The 17 counties with the lowest census participation rates
(outcomes) are all rural counties in the Northern Sierra region.
State Barchart
- American Indian or Alaska Native, Black, and Latinx Californians had
the three lowest Census participation rates, while Asian Californians
have the highest.
Registered Voters - UPDATED
Scatterplot
- There appears to be a relationship between higher outcomes and lower
disparity, meaning as registration goes up, disparity decreases.
- All but one of the San Joaquin Valley counties have lower than
average voter registration rates. In fact, five of the eight counties
with the lowest registration rates are in that region. All but two
counties in the region have worse than average racial disparities.
State Barchart
- White voters have the best (highest) registration rate in the state,
with 73 of eligible White Californians registered to vote.
- Latinx and Asian Californians have the worst rate of voter
registration in the state at 57%, a rate 16 percentage points lower than
the White rate.
- Black Californians are registered to vote at a rate (64%) close to
the overall statewide rate (65%).
Diversity of Candidates
Scatterplot
- All five counties in the Purple Quadrant are in the Northern Sierra
region.
- The fact that there is very little variance between counties in
overall outcome in this measure reflects that there is relatively equal
proportional representation for each county across the various levels of
government in California.
- Los Angeles County, which has the largest population, has the fourth
lowest racial disparities among its body of candidates for public
office.
- Five of the 11 counties with the largest racial disparities in their
candidate pool are in the Bay Area. One notable exception is San
Francisco, which has the 9th lowest racial disparity.
State Barchart
- White Californians have by far the highest rate of representation
among candidates for office, with 1.4 candidates per 100,000 residents.
They are the only racial group in the entire state that have better
representation than the overall statewide average.
- American Indian and Alaska Native Californians have the worst rate
of representation among candidates for office of any racial group at
just 0.2 officials per 100,000 people. They have 7x less representation
than White Californians.
- Latinx Californians have nearly 3x less representation in the
statewide candidate pool than White Californians.
Diversity of Elected Officials
Scatterplot
- The fact that there is very little variance between counties in
overall outcome in this measure reflects that there is relatively equal
proportional representation for each county across the various levels of
government in California.
- Many of the counties with larger populations, such as Sacramento,
Riverside, San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles, rank towards the lower
end of racial disparities among their elected officials.
- The 15 counties with the highest racial disparities in elected
representation are all non-urban counties in the Northern Sierra
region.
State Barchart
- The disparity between White representation and the representation of
all other racial groups in California is even wider in the statewide
pool of elected than it is in the pool of candidates for office. This
means White candidates are not just more likely to run, but more likely
to win.
Voting in Presidential Elections -
UPDATED
Scatterplot
- Data is relatively sparse for this indicator, as both the outcome
and disparity measures can only be reported for 27 of the 58 counties in
the state.
- There appears to be a positive relationship between outcome and
disparity, meaning as disparity increases, voter turnout also
increases.
- In Fresno, the county with the largest disparities, nearly 9 in 10
AIAN voters voted. However, only 4 in 10 Latinx or Black voters and 3 in
10 Asian voters voted.
- Six of the 10 counties with the worst voter turnout rates are in the
San Joaquin Valley, three of the remaining are in Southern
California.
State Barchart
- White Californians have the highest turnout rate in the state for
presidential elections, voting a rate well above the state average.
- Although White voter rates are still the highest, the differences in
voting rates between racial groups in the state is less pronounced for
presidential elections than it is for midterm elections. For
presidential elections.
- Asian voters turnout is 18.5 percentage points higher for
presidential elections compared to midterm elections.
- Pacific Islanders have the second lowest presidential turnout (among
7 groups) which is well below average, but the 3rd highest midterm
turnout.
Voting in Midterm Elections
Scatterplot
- Five of the six counties in the Red Quadrant (Higher Disparity,
Lower Outcome) are in the San Joaquin Valley.
- Sonoma County has both the highest rate of voting in midterm
elections in the state and the second lowest racial disparities.
- There seems to be a relationship between lower racial disparities
and better overall voter turnout for midterm elections, with relatively
few counties firmly in the Yellow or Orange Quadrants.
State Barchart
- White voters are the most likely of any racial group to turn out for
midterm elections, voting at a rate 1.5 times higher than Asian and and
Latinx voters.
- Asian and Latinx voters turnout rates are 10 percentage points below
the statewide turnout rate.